Model Trains and Etherite Suspension
by AngelofSol
Summary: Eltnum's out looking for something to do. Ducking into an open bar, she encounters Hilda on her day off. Shenanigans ensue.


One would think that taking a guest appearance in a new fighter would leave my housing situation in better shape," says Eltnum, talking to no one in particular.

"My house, if you could even call it that, is a rather sad affair that I'm intimately familiar with."

She motions to a pile of cardboard boxes.

"A cardboard hut. In a back alley. I spent years in Melty Blood living like this, but I guess this is what I get for not reading the contract for my guest appearance in this game."

She sighs.

"Really, this is what I get for whining about getting into another game. All I really wanted was an HD Remix! Instead I get stuck with another couple years of bouncing around as a side game in most tournament lineups. At least I have a better chance at appearing main stage at a famous tournament like EVO or something. Won't somebody please run a French Bread tournament?"

She walks out from the alley, and looks around the empty street. The night has been her time to roam for the most part, given she did not actually know anyone in this game. It didn't help that the sunlight made her very uncomfortable.

"I can at least be thankful they let me keep my gun. Life as a hobo is a lot easier when you can threaten people into submission. Only downside is—"

A flash of red lights and a siren.

"—having to run from the cops..."

Eltnum takes off in a light sprint, away from the cops. Even if they are not after her in particular, nothing good can arise from any interaction with them. Looking around the still unfamiliar neighborhood, her search for a place to hide begins. Any place that is open at this time of night would be worth ducking into, if not just for the cover, but because she needs something to alleviate her boredom. Her sprinting takes her past a bar, dim and quiet, but with a clearly open door. Any place is as good as any, so she ducks inside.

"While I haven't frequented bars in the past, the lack of patrons at such a prime drinking hours, even by my calculations, an empty bar isn't something I'd expect to find at this time of night. Maybe people avoid this bar in particular? "

The bar is not completely empty though. A lone figure resides at the bartop breaking the general lack of life in the bar. Eltnum moves to sit down to the right of the woman, with the intention to order a drink or some food once the bartender returns. Under the assumption that she can afford either. Even if she has to go without, relaxing in an empty bar is a good way to kill a few hours.

"What the hell is this? Model train tracks? I could have sworn this is a bar, not a child's toy store!"

Eltnum looks up from the bartop to see bottles of wine and beer staring across from her, confirming that, yes, this is a bar, and not some weird specialty shop. A little over a third of this countertop is covered in various model train paraphernalia. She gives a look over the only other patron of the bar.

"That hairstyle is familiar..."

It takes a bit for her to recall, but…

"Aren't you Hilda?!"

Reacting to her own name, Hilda pauses her fussing over the train station she has assembled in front of her.

"Indeed that is me! Do you have any business to attend to with me?"

With Eltnum speechless, the distraction is short-lived, and Hilda drops her gaze and moves her attention back to her train set instead.

"Excuse me?! I only paid attention to the big names on the contract, and I'm sure you were one of them. Were you one of the protagonists? No, no, no, now I remember, you're the boss character! You're supposed to be an ultra powerful antagonist in the search of power and all I can see here is a child playing with toy!"

Hilda pulls out a notebook from the chair to her left, and starts to mutter about train schedules.

"Shouldn't you be out planning and recruiting? No, clearly you're an idiot, so maybe I should exercise my seniority in the field of fighting games and fix your incompetence. Every good main antagonist needs..."

As Eltnum rants on, Hilda flips to another page in her notebook. Every good station manager needs to be aware of all the trains coming in and out of her station after all. It would be remiss of her to allow any of her trains be anything but on schedule.

"...and really, while Shiki is the main character of Tsukihime, I am most definitely the protagonist of Melty Blood, and thus…"

She takes the first train to her left and puts it on the tracks she's setup so far, a small loop with one base station. While this isn't going to be the final track layout, she wants to test her power, and make sure she doesn't over do it. With a bit of concentration, she pushes some of her EXes into the train itself, which cause the train to start to go around the track.

Smiling to herself, she alters how much power she puts into the train, letting it move faster and slower.

"...and that's why we were called the Back Alley—"

Speechless at what Hilda is doing, Eltnum takes a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to comprehend what just happened.

"Are you really the Boss Character of Under Night In-Birth?! I can't believe you're wasting your power on something so trivial!"

Hilda ignores her.

Put off by the lack of response from the woman sitting next to her, Eltnum gets up and moves to leave. Before she can make it to the door, curiosity strikes her, and she makes her way back to Hilda, and picks up a spare train to examine it.

"Are these some sort of special train she infuses her EXes in?"

Snapping out of her reverie from the looping train, Hilda sees Eltnum with the train in her hands.

"Oh! I see, I see! You're a rival train company, who needs to use my station! Here, one second…" says Hilda .

Hilda grabs the train out of Eltnum's hands, and pauses the train going around the track.

"No, no, I was just curious as to how you get the—" says Eltnum.

With the other train on the track now, Hilda grabs a handful of track pieces and shoves them at Eltnum. She accepts the train track, just standing there, a bit stunned.

"Here! Start laying some track down to the end of the bar, we can put another station down there," says Hilda, as she gets up to start moving things off the bar.

"No, really, I just wanted to know how you got the train to move," says Eltnum.

"Simple, I just push some EXes in," responds Hilda, "I wonder if I can run track to the other tables over the bar stools…"

With pieces of track in hand, Hilda tries laying down track from the bar to the stool, to no success as the angle and distance are too great for the pieces to stay connected. She starts moving other stools and grabbing some glasses to try to use to support the tracks. Mounting the glasses upon the stool, she attempts to mount some track bridge the gap between the table.

And she knocks the glass off the chair.

"Hey, WATCH IT!" Eltnum shouts, diving and catching the glass. Getting up to return the glass to the table she continues, "Hmph, let me show you how it's done."

With a few of the sloping track pieces Hilda was using, Eltnum proceeds to string them up using her etherite. The track flows from the countertop down to the original stool that Hilda was using for tracking. Each piece of track is suspended via two loops, which hang from the ceiling.

After finishing, Eltnum stands next to her work, smirking at Hilda with the look of a student who's proved their teacher wrong. Hilda begins to genuinely clap at the display. There's no way she could string up the track like that on her own.

"Do you think you could reach the table over there?" Hilda asks, pointing to the table behind them. She begins to start moving tracks and station parts over to that table.

"Of course I can rookie. Just watch me!"

Eltnum grabs her own pieces and starts stringing them over to the table Hilda is working at.

* * *

Hilda had called him earlier, telling Gordeau that she was going to be over later to hang out. It is a rare night off for her, so he told her to just stop by whenever and let herself in. For better or for worse, he had given her a key to the bar, though she tended to forget to close the door when she came in.

Finishing up the trash from the previous night, and grabbing the new stock for behind the bar, he walks into the bar from the back. The sound of train horns start to assault his ears.

"Did she really bring the train set again…" Gordeau complains to no one in particular. Hilda loved her damn trains, claiming that the bar's countertop was the ideal operating space for them. She didn't usually take up too much space so he let her get away with it most of the time.

Entering the behind the bar area from the kitchen, Gordeau realizes that letting her get away with it has led to a very huge mistake. Wiring and track covers the entire countertop, not to mention the track flowing across the room, onto the tables where more stations remain.

There is no place left in the entire bar to sit and drink.

Looking for the culprit, he finds a new purple haired woman arguing with Hilda, swinging her arms around indicating various trains operating on the tracks. Something about how the efficiency and passenger distribution speed of 1-3 trains is two point four five times at as effective 2-6 trains even when taking into account the additional mass and unloading time..

"Oh god, not another idiot…"


End file.
